The 150th Blue-Gray Alliance Battle of Shiloh reenactment was exciting, physically demanding at times, most enjoyable and seemed to attract every reenactor west of the 1763 Treaty of Paris Demarcation Line.

The battles featured sensational rolling musketry, impressive, elongated battle lines, Ruggle's Battery massed cannon fire, and high-energy enthusiasm amongst the troops. The combat often seemed realistic and not staged as units charged or retreated, clouds of smoke choking the battlefield. Pushing Federal troops into the woods and having them surrender was superb.
Logistics and weather raised their ugly heads but the particpants carried on in spite of rain, mud and shortages. Manassas seems to have had the best infra-structure of Sesquicentennial events so far.

I would have enjoyed seeing a mounted General Johnston, Beauregard, Grant and Sherman and Negro man-servants with their officers in the camps.

Lack of drill, Federal commander insubordination , a unit on the field with fixed bayonets (?), were somewhat telling and one would have thought the spirit of the Sesquicentennial would have instilled a desire to excel. Apparently registration money and warm bodies trump behavior.

On a personal note, when the Cotton States Battalion over-ran the Federal camp Saturday morning, the only breakfast we found left by the fleeing Yankees was a half cup of cold coffee on an officer's field-desk and a broken piece of hardtack. Surely to be historically accurate the coffee should have been hot!
all for the old flag,
David Corbett